Chapter 46

Vivian laid on the bed and tightly closed her eyes. She felt very depressed.

It was because Selena did not appear at the rose garden party held yesterday.

On the day she went to the dress shop with Selena, the Madame had gone out to the sound of knocking on the door, and returned to the parlor with a pale face.

When she asked Selena what was going on, she replied that she was not feeling well, so she went home first.

Mia, who sat up first, snorted at the Madame’s words and closed her lips while sitting in the parlor a little longer.

Did it make sense that Selena was fine until recently, but suddenly got sick and threw it all away? Besides, Selena didn’t even talk to Vivian!

She wondered if Selena’s old selfish habit had come out, but she shook her head when she recalled the servant who had gone to buy medicine earlier.

She decided to hold on to it, so she shouldn’t have any doubts.

As she sat down and pondered, a person came from the Duchy. They first talked to the Madame, and they later came up to her and expressed their regret about Selena not feeling well and being unable to attend the party.

‘Yes. It was really regrettable.’

As she recalled that day, the anger came boiling. At this moment, she was in her pajamas, hugging a pillow, and kicking the duvet to vent her anger until lunch time. With a knock, the nanny came in carrying a silver tray with a single letter on it.

“Whose letter is it?”

Since she was a nanny Vivian had been with since childhood, Vivian asked with her head raised without getting up from her bed.

Vivian saw the nanny, tongue-tied, carefully read the name written on the envelope of her splendid letter.

Her voice then fluttered heavily.

“My Lady! Lady Vivian!”

Vivian, whose eyes had widened at the unusually noisy movement, jumped and sat up.

“What? What!?”

“Selena, this is from Lady Selena White!”

“What?”

Tossing the pillow she was holding, Vivian slammed the bed and snatched the letter from the nanny’s hand.

She curled up her feet as she looked at the blue flowers embroidered on the stiff, high-quality paper.

Carefully, with a paper knife, she cut through the envelope, revealing a finely folded letter inside.

Gulp. She pulled out her letter with a nervous sound.

The letter was written in messy handwriting. Vivian’s expression, which had frowned upon seeing how bad the handwriting was, became brighter as she read the letter.

“Oh my gosh!”

“What is it, My Lady?”

After reading the letter till the end, Vivian jumped up. ’My Lady, that’s not noble’. She couldn’t even hear the nagging in front of her.

“Look at this. There’s a ‘Dear’!”

“That is… what?”

“Nanny! She used ‘dear’! What do you think this is? A token of friendship! Besides, do you know what’s written at the end of the text? ’Please keep the contents of this letter a secret’! Oh my gosh! This is a real best friend!”

The nanny wondered how that would lead to becoming best friends, but when she saw her lovely Vivian running around like a child, she just closed her mouth. The nanny adored Vivian so much that she didn’t feel the need to burst her bubble.

“A re-reply! I’ll write a reply!”

Overwhelmed with emotion, Vivian ran to the desk and sat down. She picked only the most luxurious items from the bottom drawer, the place where she had collected letter paper and envelopes, and put them on the desk.

With her hands loosened, Vivian grabbed the pen and started writing elaborately.

Vivien concentrated on the letter to the extent that she didn’t even know that the nanny was leaving the room, shaking her head while smiling at the excited girl.

How long did it take to write the letter in silence…

“Phew, I’m done writing.”

Vivien, who proudly looked at the word-filled letter, chewed her lips as if something wasn’t quite right.

The content was perfect… Even the letter paper was perfect… Yet, it was strangely unsatisfying. Contemplating the reason, Vivian read Selena’s letter again.

“Ah!”

Then, as if realizing something, she let out a sigh and opened the bottom drawer again.

Vivian took out the same new letter paper and held the pen in her hand again.

“The handwriting is so neat that it lacks humanity.”

To be honest, the writing in Selena’s letter was quite bad, and at the beginning of the letter it was written:

‘I haven’t had time to write a letter while recovering my health. I feel a little better, so now I have the chance to pick up the pen.’

So it was clear that this letter was written by Lady Selena herself. It could have been written by someone else, but she probably wouldn’t ask someone with bad handwriting to do it… Judging by the fact that the reply to the last invitation wasn’t this bad, it seemed that a servant or subordinate was entrusted with the writing then.

If she sent a reply to someone with such bad handwriting with such perfect handwriting, how would Selena feel once she received the letter? Vivian was so proud of herself that she had even come up with the thought, so she pat herself on the back.

Great job, Vivian!

Vivian, who forcibly twisted her hand and scribbled crooked letters, hummed with satisfaction.

If Selena saw this, she would have a hectic time asking Vivian which musical lyrics she was humming.

Meanwhile, there was another figure thinking of Selena. Unlike Vivian, who was droopy and wore pajamas for lunch, she was a figure wearing a gorgeous dress and high-heeled shoes.

The corners of her lips covered in bright red lipstick drew a sharp curve. Soon, high-pitched laughter echoed through the room, and a maid standing next to her, serving tea, trembled.

“Ha! Of course… What’s wrong with a tomboyish personality?”

Mia, who sipped the hot black tea, shed a smile.

Marquis Lachapelle, who was drinking tea opposite her, looked lovingly at his daughter and ordered the trembling maid to go back.

With a crooked smile, Mia, looking back at the retreating maid who had been dying to leave, leaned back and shook her body. She was excited by the news she had heard.

“Yes, my daughter. What makes you so happy?”

The Marquis asked, pushing the tea aside.

His red eyes, like those of Mia, were shining bright red.

“Well, Selena didn’t go to Vivian’s garden party.”

As a noble, it wasn’t polite to be absent from an invitational meeting for no good reason. In the case of a party, it was so large that even if one didn’t attend, it wasn’t noticeable, but a garden party was different.

The name alone implied a party, but in reality it was simply a gathering.

As it was that size, the news that a big name like Selena would attend, must have spread unknowingly. Everyone was only saying that they didn’t know about it.

Those who attended, aiming for a chance to get to know the duchy’s princess, would talk behind Selena’s back, who didn’t appear even until the end.

Thinking about that, Mia burst into laughter again.

“This is good.”

What she just said was about Vivian. How angry she was about Vivian trying to be on equal terms with Selena as Selena was with Mia, when Vivian was just a county’s lady… She pretended to be Selena’s friend and talked with her, and in the end, became a disposable item as well. It was really great news, so she couldn’t help but laugh.

“How much trouble did I have to take the seat next to her?”

But soon wrinkles fell on her forehead. She thought of Vivian, who was next to Selena, because she remembered her who used to be there.

“Our princess. There’s wrinkles on your forehead.”

Mia was startled by the Marquis’s sudden relaxed voice and rubbed her forehead. ‘Wrinkles on this perfect face, that is absurd.’

The Marquis chuckled as he saw Mia rubbing her forehead and exhaling a deep breath.

“Well, that’s already happened. If you think about how stressful you were next to her anyway, it’s better now.”

“But, Father… If that happens, then…”

“Shh.”

As Mia spoke, the Marquis put his finger on his lips and lifted the tea he had pushed aside. Mia swallowed a gulp at the sight of her father and nodded her head.

“You should always be careful with your words. Understood, Mia?”

“Of course. Father.”

With a sip of tea, the Marquis, who smiled contentedly, leaned his back and warmed his throat.

It was a leisurely act that did not require any effort at all, but the Marquis’s eyes glowed redder than ever, exuding a dangerous atmosphere.

***

About ten days had passed since I opened my eyes. Fortunately, my body had improved a lot. There was no more weakness in my legs, and thanks to that, there was no need to worry about the strange palanquin.

Before today, whenever I tried to go anywhere, people gathered to carry me… I really thought everyone was crazy. Aiden, who came back after a short vacation, did not stop them, but merely glanced at them with a blank look.

So, now that was a thing of the past.

To exercise my hands, I sat down at a desk that I had not written on in a while and wrote down some text.

“Lady Vivian Jonas has sent you a reply.”

Aiden handed her the letter. On the modest envelope, the words “Vivian Jonas” were crookedly written on it.

Was Vivian also awkward with quills?

It was the first time I ever used a quill pen in this world, so to be honest, the handwriting was poor. By the way, Vivian was from this place, and since she was a noble, she must have practiced writing… ‘Well, no matter how hard one tried, there were always things they couldn’t do.’

I cut the upper part of the envelope with a paper knife more skillfully than before, and took out the letter.

‘Very, very, very dear Lady Selena White,

It is a dazzling day in the warm sunlight. How frustrating it would be to lie down in a sick bed on this beautiful day when the flowers in the garden are beautiful. How cruel of me to be unable to comprehend these feelings. I am so sorry.

I wholly understand your inability to attend my party. Is the party really that important? Your bodily health is more so.

A flower bud is blooming in my heart because of your warm consideration to write me a letter in such a natural way.

Although it can’t be compared to the sincerity you expressed, I want to visit Lady Selena, to comfort you with a small heart. If you don’t mind, I’ll be waiting for a positive reply.

Vivian Jonas, who is thinking of Princess Selena’s recovery.’

I read the crookedly written last line and closed my eyes.

Vivian was a person who never missed an opportunity.

Even if I wanted to pretend I didn’t notice, it was a request to visit that I couldn’t refuse.

I wrote a letter saying I was sorry that I couldn’t go to her party, but wouldn’t it be embarrassing to reject someone who wanted to come in person again?

Since I couldn’t attend the party, I felt the need to come and visit her separately.

“Are you okay?”

“She said she’d come to visit.”

I pushed the letter away and fell down on the desk.

If I had met Eunji before I jumped, I wouldn’t have needed to think about these things… I stopped thinking and closed my eyes. ‘What am I doing, thinking about things that have already happened?’

I planned to lie down for a bit before writing a reply.

I had been lying down for so long that it seemed I fell asleep without realizing it. I had been lying on my stomach for a long time and my back was crooked.

As I raised my upper body, the light blanket that had been covering my body slid down.

I looked at the blanket that had fallen to the floor and turned my gaze to the other side. Someone sat upright on a wooden chair next to the bed and closed their eyes.

After blinking my eyes a few times, the shape gradually became clearer. The man’s hair was shining silver in the sunlight.

“Sir Lucas?”

Even though it was a small murmur that I let out involuntarily, the closed eyes slowly opened. The pair of open eyes turned to me. He had just woken up, but he looked hazy and sharp.

“Selena.”